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Know Your Fathers Rights?

Need to Modify Child Support? 

Driver’s License Suspension?

Passport Suspended? Bank Levy? 

Want to Terminate Your Arrears?

Are you a father who needs help with child support? Do you want to reduce your child support? Do you owe a high back child support arrears balance? Is the Department of Child Support Services after you for child support arrears? High wage garnishment causing you and your family a financial hardship? Driver’s license, professional license, or passport suspended? Need to stop a bank levy? Do you contest the child support arrears balance? Stressed you will never pay off the back child support arrears balance and high interest charges? Do you want to reduce and settle the child support arrears balance so you can finally get out of paying child support arrears? Interested in a Child Support Arrears Forgiveness Program that will enable you to get the child support arrears dismissed forever? We Can Help You. 

Child Support Survival Services assists fathers facing child support challenges. Since 1999, we have provided a low-cost, high-quality alternative to hiring a child support attorney. We have been fathers’ advocates helping fathers obtain modification for reduction of child support orders, reduce high wage garnishments, get child support arrears dismissed, contest child support arrears, obtain a release of suspended driver’s license, business license, and passports, and can help get rid of child support arrears by negotiating a settlement with the other parent or through a child support arrears forgiveness program. And for those needing legal representation in court, we offer experienced child support attorneys. 

How to Reduce Child Support in California

Child support can be reduced if there has been a significant change in circumstances. Common reasons for lowering child support include an involuntary reduction income, increase in visitation time, or one of the children turning 18 and graduating from high school. We can help you reduce or terminate child support orders and will assist you if your Ex is seeking an unreasonable increase in your current child support payments. We have the same child support calculator as the judges, know how child support is calculated, and can help you prepare your court documents and Income and Expense Declaration to effectively show the financial hardship you are experiencing.

How to Contest Child Support Arrears in California

There are many reasons that your child support arrears balance may be incorrect. Perhaps you have made payments and have not received credit, you have more than one state enforcing the arrears and inaccurate interest charges are being applied, Social Security Administration paid benefits to your children and you did not receive credit, your child lived with you while you were charged child support, or you were never properly served. 

To contest child support arrears, we first have to determine how the Child Support Services Division is claiming you owe the alleged debt. Records of the Child Support Services Division are not always correct and mistakes are often made. Therefore, we will obtain your financial payment history, copies of all child support orders, and audit your account. Then we contact the Child Support Services staff attorney detailing the reasons why you are disputing the arrears. In most cases, the DCSS attorney will review your evidence and make a decision that should resolve the child support arrears. There is a misconception that complaints to government will be ignored. This is false. Most people fail at getting results without going to court, because they don’t know how to do it correctly.  Since 1999, we have helped thousands of people resolve their child support arrears issues out of court. If, however, the dispute of your arrears is not resolved administratively, we will continue to assist you with preparing the court documents and motion to get child support arrears dismissed based on the reason that you contest child support arrears. 

How to Get Child Support Arrears Dismissed Judicially in California

Motion to Set Aside: To get your child support arrears dismissed or set-aside by a judge, accurate court documents explaining the legal reasons as to why the judge should dismiss the child support arrears need to be prepared and filed with the court. One common reason for child support arrears being dismissed by the court is not having been properly served and a default judgment being set against you to pay an unaffordable child support amount. If the order is set aside, all or a portion of the child support debt can be terminated.

Petition for Equitable Forgiveness or Jackson credits: If your child lived with you and the Department of Child Support Services continued to charge you with child support, the judge can forgive the child support arrears that you were charged while your child was in your custody.

Reducing High Wage Garnishments

If the wage garnishment for back child support arrears is unaffordable, we can assist you in obtaining a lower repayment plan on the arrears. We understand that when the payments on the past due child support are too high, your incentive to work is less. 

Child Support Arrears Forgiveness 

Child support arrears forgiveness program is a government initiative that allows child support arrears owing to the state to be partially forgiven. Eligibility, procedures, and the amount of arrears forgiven, differ depending on the state. In California, the Department of Child Support Services allows fathers the chance to reduce the amount they owe in arrears to the state under the Debt Reduction Program. In determining the amount of arrears that will be forgiven in California, the DCSS will review your recent payment history, current income, and assets. While only in some parts of New York, does the Division of Child Support Services allow for a waiver of the arrears, under the CAP Program. Eligibility for the CAP program depends on when the other parent received public assistance and your previous income status. In California, the arrears may be reduced by over 90%. While in New York, the arrears may be reduced to as low as $500. Results depend on the details of your situation. 

If you want to reduce the entire back child support arrears balance by making a compromise for settlement, we can coordinate the forgiveness of a large portion of the past due child support balance going to the state. We have the accurate and up to date information about the child support arrears forgiveness programs and forms can help you through the entire process. 

Settle Child Support Arrears 

If the child support arrears are owing to the custodial parent and not to the state, then negotiations need to be made with the other parent. We have assisted many angry and defensive parents in reaching a mutual settlement agreement in which the custodial parents agrees to forever waive a portion of the arrears owing to her in exchange for a reasonable lump sum of money.   

If you want to know how to get out of paying child support, we cannot help you. But, if you want affordable and honest help because you because you dispute your arrears, need to reduce current child support or high wage garnishments on the back child support, obtain a release of any of your driver’s licenses, business license, or passport, or want to settle your child support arrears balance and get your child support arrears dismissed forever, We Can and Will Help You.

It’s never too late to start over. If you weren’t happy with yesterday’s choices, do something about it TODAY. Don’t stay stuck.

We at Child Support Survival Services for Fathers urge you to contact us today for a free consultation.

Send E-mail inquires to: info@childsupporthelp.org

Child Support Survival Services is a BBB Accredited Legal Clinic in Los Angeles, CA

For additional assistance please select any of the following related web sites:

  • Fathers Custody Center: Dedicated to helping child caring, actively involved fathers to gain custody of their children.
  • Fathers Divorce: Assisting fathers with child support, custody visitation.
  • California Fathers Rights Child Support: Helping fathers paying child support in California with problems of back child support arrears, modification of child support, drivers license suspension, Set Aside, Compromise of Arrears Program (COAP) and Child Support Debt Reduction Program

Service Locations


We provide services in the following counties in the state of California: Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Alameda, Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, Ventura, Butte, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Shasta, El Dorado, Humboldt, Imperial, Kern, Lake, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Siskiyou, Napa, Placer, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Louis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Trinity, Yolo, Yuba and in the Central Sierra.

And in the following areas in the state of New York: Manhattan (New York County), Brooklyn (Kings County), Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island (Richmond County)

Child Support Survival Services

11901 Santa Monica Blvd. # 323
Los Angeles, CA 90025